Rise of the Alchemy God

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In a dark space where no light could penetrate, a creaking sound echoed, followed by the heavy thud of something falling.

Thud.

Inside what seemed to be a rectangular container made of a black, pitch-like stone lay the figure of a skeleton.

It bore no particularly distinctive features, except that all the bones in its body were as black as coal.

After what appeared to be the lid of the container, resembling a coffin fell, nothing else happened, and the environment returned to its previous silence.

Within the coffin, the figure of the black skeleton, which had remained there for who knows how long, finally showed some sign of life.

The eye sockets, empty just moments before, now contained a dark blue flame burning within them as a series of symbols appeared on the forehead of the skeleton's skull.

Suddenly, it began to move its body, and with some difficulty, it sat up in place.

"I need to leave here before he finds me," it murmured, feeling its body enveloped by demonic Qi.

Suddenly, a cloak similar to the one it had worn before self-destructing materialized on its form.

If it was true that the human was already a being who had ascended to the spiritual reakm, then it was certain that it wouldn't take him long to find him.

Thus, the skeleton moved, seeking to take advantage of the vast distance between them to gain some margin and escape to a more remote place where it could hide until its ancestor was fully awakened.

Now, it could only place its hopes in its ancestor to defeat that human.

With that, it dashed at high speed, and in no time, it reached the entrance of the cave.

As soon as it exited, ready to speed off in a specific direction, it felt a sudden pressure pinning it to the spot.

Before it could even allow panic to set in, its body was moved, and in the next moment, it found itself exactly where he had been before he had self-destructed.

What…

The scene of their companion using a technique to escape, only to be brought back here, surprised the others who were still immobilized.

Clearly, the most shocked of all was the skeletal demon himself who, realizing that he had returned to his previous position, was struck by immense disbelief.

'H-How did he do it?' he wondered, never expecting to be captured so quickly.

With this failed escape attempt, even the faint glimmer of hope it had for freedom was extinguished, and it knew its death was imminent.

On the other hand, Ethan, after his initial surprise, recomposed himself, ready to put an end to the lives of these eight demons.

He had been momentarily startled because, although his prison formation was active, the other party had managed to destroy its physical body and transfer its soul into another, already prepared body through a special technique.

Though he hadn't anticipated something like this, he didn't dwell too much on it.

He immediately recaptured the demon and, with a mental command, adjusted some symbols within the formation to make it harder to breach.

Ethan knew his formation was far from perfect, so he would continue to improve it over time.

'Maybe it's time to upgarde my skills,' he thought.

He had initially intended to play with them a bit, to see if they had anything interesting to show him.

But aside from the skeleton that had almost managed to escape, the others hadn't done anything particularly remarkable, in his opinion.

At this point, in Ethan's eyes, the only thing that distinguished them from spiritual energy cultivators was the fact that unless one had methods to eliminate demonic Qi, they wouldn't die easily.

Unfortunately for them, Ethan had such a method, and it was one that benefited him greatly.

He could sense that the being slumbering deep within that rift in the ground was almost fully awakened, so he decided to end this pointless battle.

With little effort, he eliminated them all instantly.

And at the sight of their companions being annihilated as if they were nothing, even the demon who had refrained from attacking Ethan initially, knowing he was far stronger than them, was left stunned by how effortlessly they were eradicated.

But this was something he had expected.

The next thing to happen was that his companions were disintegrated, only to transform into pure demonic Qi that Ethan absorbed, just as he had done with the first one to attack him.

This, of course, terrified him, but it was reassured by the thought that he wouldn't meet the same fate as its companions, because it could sense that his ancestor was almost fully awakened and would surely perceive the situation here.

He believed that his ancestor wouldn't stand idly by while their race was being eradicated by this strange human.

At least that's what he thought, but who could have predicted that the reality would be very different from all this.

In the depths of the rift in the ground, the figure of a large black cocoon could be seen.

The cocoon, which until not long ago had begun to show signs of life, was now glowing faintly, with a reddish-orange light emanating from it.

Scccrrriiitch... rrriiiip...

With a sickly yet somehow sinister sound, the elastic surface of the cocoon, which seemed to be formed from countless small fibers, began to tear apart as what appeared to be long, thin fingers gripped the edges of the tear and widened the opening further.

Effortlessly, the surface of the cocoon was ripped apart, as two pairs of skeletal arms emerged from within, clutching the sides for support as the rest of the enormous body was pulled out.

"Haa… finally," a slightly hoarse voice echoed in the deep cavern of the rift where the cocoon had been.

Following the voice, a towering being nearly ten meters tall finally rose, gradually regaining all its senses.

"At last, I have reached the spiritual rank…" the figure said, as black mist began to appear around it and slowly enveloped its entire form.

Gradually, the mist began to condense into black garments, and with a gesture of its hand, part of the mist started to mold and extend, transforming into what appeared to be a long scepter.

Where once stood a torn cocoon and a thin, towering figure, now stood nothing but a black-robed form hovering above the ground.

The figure had no flesh, and the only distinguishable features were its long skeletal limbs protruding from the black robe and what seemed to be a large red-and-black orb visible in its chest area, surrounded by what looked like multiple sets of ribs.

The lower half of the body lacked legs, and the upper half featured only a black hood. Inside the hood was pure darkness, where any normal person attempting to look inside risked being swallowed by it.

Mo Yan, who had gone into seclusion for over a millennium, had finally awakened.